This powerful collection of stories, set in the mid-West among the lonely men and women who drink, fish and play cards to ease the passing of time, was the first by Raymond Carver to be published in the UK.

The unparalleled short story collection by the great Raymond Carver, master of spare, powerful prose and one of the great American short story writers.

This powerful collection of stories is set in the mid-West among the lonely men and women who drink, fish and play cards to ease the passing of time. In the opening story a man whose wife and children have left him, rearranges all his furniture on the lawn. And in each subsequent story sadness, pain and drudgery propel the characters towards their fate. But through the darkness, vivid colloquial narration and a razor-sharp sense of how people really communicate illuminate all the comedy and tragedy of ordinary life.

‘The master craftsman of the modern American short story’ Daily Telegraph

‘One of America's most original, truest voices’ Salman Rushdie

'The most celebrated story collection from one of the true American masters' New York Review of Books